People pray during a service near the Presidential Palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Wednesday. Haitians remembered the anniversary with prayer services and other events in memory of the hundreds of thousands killed last year.

Jorge Silva / Reuters

A woman wakes up on a street in Port-au-Prince on Wednesday. As Haitians mark the anniversary on Wednesday of the earthquake that flattened much of the capital Port-au-Prince, hopes that a better nation could rise from the rubble have given way to a crushing sense of bitterness and despair.

Today marks the one-year anniversary since an earthquake took the lives of hundreds of thousands died and decimated entire communities.

The pictures were- and continue to be- heart wrenching. Haitians have been picking up the pieces to restore their nation. Take a look at where the country is now.